This invention pertains to personal wireless communication devices, and more specifically to communication devices that reduce the electromagnetic radiation intensity received by a user""s brain and tissue.
The use of cellular phones and other wireless communication devices have become very popular in recent years. (PDA""s phones, cellular phone, walkie-talkies, digital communicators, wireless phones, and others are among the many ways we communicate. Along with these phones has come the fear that they may cause health problems, including cancer. Whether this fear is well founded or just hysteria, science has yet to determine conclusively. However, the fact remains that the majority of people presently want devices that limit their exposure to electromagnetic radiation emitted by these communication devices. And the Environmental Protection Agency has taken the threat seriously enough to fund expensive long-term research in this area and has issued cautionary warnings about the extended use of cellular phones. The problem is particularly great with modern cellular phones and other high power wireless communication devices, which use the new very-short antennas. These short antennas produce a much higher power density around the antenna compared to older long antennas. When in use, these personal communication devices are brought to rest against the user""s ear and the antenna is positioned approximately one inch away from the user""s head with their brain absorbing a considerable portion of the antenna radiation. People""s biggest fear is that this very close proximity to a high-power antenna may cause brain cancer and/or leukemia. Besides the possible problem with cancer, placing a person""s head so close to the antenna also causes a significant portion of the transmitted energy to be absorbed or blocked. This reduces the transmitted signal and may cause communication problems due to a weakened signal.
Inventors have attempted to solve the radiation absorption problem by designing a multitude of ways to block and shield the transmitted signal from the user""s head. Unfortunately, these designs still create very strong radiation patterns near the user""s head, and also interfere with transmission and reception of signals. Many companies have compromised by simply moving the location of the antenna a few millimeters further away from the user""s head. Angling the antenna slightly away from the user""s head is also a common practice.
The Applicants"" invention can reduce radiation intensities nearly an order of magnitude more-than any of the above prior art while still transmitting at the same level as the prior art. The Applicants"" design may at the same time have better reception at the same power level than prior art because less signal energy is absorbed. The physical distance placed between the user and the transmitting antenna accomplishes this. Thus, combining a bottom mounted antenna with an extendible earphone arm can greatly reduces the radiation intensity absorbed by the user over the prior art. No prior art was found that showed the use of an ear-bud style audio earpiece which was mounted rigidly onto a cellular phone or other wireless communications device. No prior art was found that showed an extendible and retractable air channel for conducting sound to a user""s ear. No prior art was found that showed a linearly extendible and retractable earphone.
The reduction in radiation may be accomplished by moving the audio output earpiece away from the transmitting antenna and enabling the cellular phone to be used in an inverted orientation. This distancing of the earpiece from the transmitting antenna and inverting, or turning upside down of the cellular phone, allows the antenna to be moved a significant distance away from the user""s brain, and placed far below the user""s ear. The result can be that the user absorbs less total energy, and the highest intensity electromagnetic radiation (xe2x80x9chot spotxe2x80x9d) next to the brain can be eliminated. In one of the preferred designs, the speaker output can be extended below the bottom of the phone. The phone can then be inverted during use, with the microphone kept substantially in the same location with respect to the user""s mouth as when it is used without the attachable cover. With the phone inverted in this way, the antenna can be moved several inches away from the user""s head and face. This inversion of the cellular phone actually moves the entire phone way from the user""s brain.
The disclosed phone attachment cover designs include phone faceplates, slip-on covers and other housing replacement designs. In this document, the disclosed phone attachments are referred to as inverting covers, attachment covers, and/or just phone covers. In all these designs, the speaker sound can be routed to a new audio output earpiece by either a passive sound conduit (passive) or with an electronic microphone and speaker combination (active). The passive design is preferred because it does not require any wire connections or batteries to be used. For a sound conduit (sound pipe, or sound channel), one end of a sealed pipe can be placed over the phone""s speaker so that sound generated by the speaker is projected through the sound pipe to the earpiece end. This earpiece end can then be place near the user""s ear so the user can hear the sound from the speaker. For the active design, sound output can be accessed, for example, either on the phone by its earphone output jack or with a microphone placed near the phone""s speaker. This signal from the phone can then be directed through wires to a speaker in the earpiece of the phone cover. The use of the phone""s own output jack can eliminate the need for an extra battery and the microphone.
A secondary advantage of moving the cellular phone away from the user""s head is it allows better transmitting of electromagnetic signals. Absorption can be reduced because of the thinner effective cross-section of the user""s chin and neck area compared to the user""s head, and also because of the greater distance the antenna can be from the user""s chin, neck, and body. Thus, the user absorbs significantly less total radiation in the horizon plane compared to when the antenna is placed up against the user""s head, and this allows more signal to radiate outward toward a cellular tower for reception.
Accordingly, several objects and advantages of our invention are:
a) To significantly reduce total radiation absorption by a user""s brain and head when using a wireless communications device.
b) To improve hearing ability in noisy environments by using a small ear-bud style earpiece as the audio output. This earpiece fits snugly within the xe2x80x9couter ear canalxe2x80x9d of the user, thereby forming a sound barrier to outside noise and improving the user""s ability to hear the audio output.
c) To allow a cellular phone antenna to be moved significantly away from the user""s head and brain, thereby reducing the potential damage done by electromagnetic waves.
d) To provide antenna transmission at approximately chin or neck level, to improve horizontal transmission field due to the thinner cross-section of the user""s chin area and neck (less absorption) compared to placing the antenna near the user""s head.
e) To use lower transmitter power settings because of the better horizontal transmission field mentioned in item xe2x80x9cd)xe2x80x9d above.
f) To significantly reduce the electromagnetic energy intensity (power density) experienced by the user""s brain.
g) To locate the normal operating position for a wireless communication transmitting antenna a significant distance away from the user""s head without significantly changing the general ergonomics of the wireless device.
h) To allow the user to adjust the angle of the antenna for better reception while at the same time reducing the user""s exposure to high-intensity antenna radiation.
i) To allow standard wireless communications devices to used the new invention without the need for significant modifications to the wireless device, such as by replacing the faceplate or slipping it into a phone cover.
j) To provide a bottom mounted antenna which can be pivotal along one or two axis.
k) To allow much higher transmitter power levels while maintaining safe radiation levels to the user""s brain by operating the antenna a significant distance away from the user""s head.
l) To reduce transmitter power by reducing absorption of the signal by the user""s head and body.
m) To move the listening area (audio output) for a standard style phone significantly below the bottom of the phone (for inverted operation).
n) To provide a slip on attachment cover (shroud) for wireless phones, with a transmitting antenna on top, without the need for any modifications to the phone itself, which moves the sound output location below the bottom of the phone for inverted operation.
o) To provide a replacement face-plate for standard wireless phones with a transmitting antenna on top, thus moving the audio output location below the bottom of the phone.
p) To provide phone designs that can retract and extend the phone""s earpiece for moving the phone""s transmitting antenna away from the user""s head.
q) To allow phone designs that are usable by the operator with the earpiece in both the retracted and the extended states.
r) To provide a phone design where presently manufactured electronic transceiver circuits may be used with inverted-antenna phone cover design that only require the redesign of the housing and speaker placement.
s) To provide a speaker output extension to a flip-phone design for moving the earpiece further away from the antenna.
t) To provide a flip-phone style phone where the earpiece moves away from the transmitting antenna for use by mounting the transmitting antenna on the bottom.
u) To provide a phone design with the speaker placed below the microphone, keypad, and display screen.
v) To provide a resilient arm for the speaker output, which may be extended significantly away from the transmitting antenna on a wireless phone.
w) To provide a phone with an extendible earpiece designed to remain semi-rigidly attached to the phone and small enough to fit within the outer ear canal of the user. In this way the user can avoid ear fatigue which is common when holding a flat earpiece phone against their ear for long periods of time.
x) To provide a phone design where a directional transmitting antenna is mounted on the bottom of the phone and an earpiece that is extendible above the top of the phone.